Ever since its creation in 1935, Gallup has been hailed as the leader of polling in the United States. Beginning with its prediction in 1936 that FDR would defeat Alfred Landon for the U.S. presidency, Gallup has reported on every presidential race since. So when Gallup announced it would not be reporting on the 2016 … Read more
The November 13 terror attacks in Paris sent shockwaves through the international community. In the immediate aftermath, citizens around the globe stood vigil for Paris. French President Francois Hollande declared his country to be “at war” with the Islamic State (ISIS), and initiated a series of ground strikes aimed at Raqqa, ISIS’s capital in Syria. … Read more
American education is still segregated. Even after the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and despite the valiant attempts of state legislatures and courts, under the very nose of a nation that heralds education as the greatest tool and restricted freedom as the greatest evil, black children and white children still do … Read more
The way we elect the president of the United States is fundamentally flawed. The winner-take-all Electoral College disproportionately favors swing states, depresses voter turnout, and corrupts our democracy. Americans across the political spectrum realize the need for substantive electoral reform: according to a 2013 Gallup Poll, 61 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of Independents, and … Read more
“Welcome to Groundhog Day,” began Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, setting the tone for his refutation of Justice Stephen Breyer’s multi-tiered dissent in this year’s Glossip v. Gross ruling. Scalia, joined by Clarence Thomas, fiercely defended of the constitutionality of capital punishment and the use of a specific drug in lethal injections. The two justices … Read more
The CNBC Republican debate brought its fair share of controversy. HPR writers analyze the night’s happenings, from the strained relationship between moderators and candidates to the policies they discussed. Image credits: Flickr/Peter Stevens
America’s schools have begun to fall behind the international competition, with American students ranking 24th in the world in reading, 28th in science, and an especially disappointing 36th in math according to the most recent data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). In recent years, education reformers and political leaders from both political … Read more
Political correctness, an often-ambiguous phrase, has in recent months become a hallmark of Republican rhetoric against Democrats. Those on the right have asserted that the First Amendment rights of Americans are slowly eroding. Those on the left have responded that our diversifying society is simply becoming more tolerant and accepting. Yet the American understanding of … Read more
In the two years since he assumed the pontificate, Pope Francis has made it clear he won’t abstain from politics. As pope, he has weighed in on a wide range of politically divisive topics, including climate change, immigration, and the globalized economy, often with a sharp tongue, referring to unrestrained capitalism as the “dung of … Read more
Modern politics treats “Republicans” as interchangeable with “conservatives.” The conflation occurs from local levels to the national stage, such as when Jeb Bush declared that he will cut taxes and “apply conservative principles the right way [and], create an environment where everybody rises up.” While conservatism includes aspects of limited government intervention such as cutting … Read more